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8-Back He-man vs "The Original" He-Man - Differences?

Hey guys, I'm in the market for a LOOSE vintage He-Man and was wondering if there exists a difference between the (1st run) 8-back He-Man and the (re-issue) "The Original" He-Man. Clues like paint app variations, different head sculpt, etc. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Freddy

**MODS: I tried searching the forum and could not find any info on this. If it exists, please move the thread to the correct location.

Oh ok, any differences that you know of? I'm mainly trying to distinguish the 8-back in loose form if it's even possible.

I'm not even sure on the differences between 8-back loose and later loose, myself. I was just filling in a bit of detail and showing off. As far as I know, they moved from hard to soft heads at some point, but I couldn't tell you when, or even which came first.

All of mentioned are mostly TAIWAN He-Man, which is always the soft head variant. There are TAIWAN 1981 and rare TAIWAN 1982 figures of He-Man.

The firs edition He-Man (as far as I know) is always TAIWAN 1981 variant known as "Yellow Belt" because of more Filmation like color of the belt (yellowish-orange) and the harness has shorter straps than all the later versions. The hair color of this variant is very intense yellow also close to the Filmation color of the He-Man hair...

The second run, also marked TAIWAN 1981 has orange-reddish belt and it is known as "Orange Belt" variant. It has somehow lighter yellow hair, noticeable different than the first one.

The last of He-Man produced in Taiwan is marked 1982 and it is rare compared to others... it has a bit different quality of plastic, orange belt, but hair color is closer to the first run He-Man.

All of mentioned are mostly TAIWAN He-Man, which is always the soft head variant. There are TAIWAN 1981 and rare TAIWAN 1982 figures of He-Man.

The firs edition He-Man (as far as I know) is always TAIWAN 1981 variant known as "Yellow Belt" because of more Filmation like color of the belt (yellowish-orange) and the harness has shorter stripes than all the later versions. The hair color of this variant is very intense yellow also close to the Filmation color of the He-Man hair...

The second run, also marked TAIWAN 1981 has orange-reddish belt and it is known as "Orange Belt" variant. It has somehow lighter yellow hair, noticeable different than the first one.

The last of He-Man produced in Taiwan is marked 1982 and it is rare compared to others... it has a bit different quality of plastic, orange belt, but hair color is closer to the first run He-Man.

The first edition harness can be recognized (from the front) by bright red color on the harness details. Unlike other versions of Taiwan He-Man in most of the first edition figures the line of the paint on the boots is a bit lower than the upper line of sculpt of the fur on top of boots.

The "Orange Belt" color of boots may vary from very light to very dark, even darker than Taiwan 1982, the same goes with belt color which can vary very much but it is always more reddish than "Yellow Belt" (the first edition).

I am not so familiar chronology of the He-Man cards (never been interested in MOCs)

Is this correct?

8-back without warranty
8-back with warranty
12 back
The Original

Based on this I've marked TAIWAN 1982 as "The Original" because I think that's the last edition produced in Taiwan. But probably on the same "the original" cards there were some of those "Orange Belt" as well...

There are also two variants of He-Man MEXICO ( they are recognized by soft heads and yellow belt).
MEXICO 1981 (with pinkish face, very much like TAIWAN) and MEXICO 1982 (with pale face and light yellow hair).
I think these were sold in USA on the same cards as Taiwan versions (just different country marks), so it is very difficult to correlate figure variants with cards in some cases

Mantisaur82 thanks for all your information and help. It would be cool if org members that have opened moc He-Mans for w/e reason would confirm or deny what we've learned so far. Thanks guys

Freddy

Originally Posted by Mantisaur82

You welcome!

Just to mention that...

The first edition harness can be recognized (from the front) by bright red color on the harness details. Unlike other versions of Taiwan He-Man in most of the first edition figures the line of the paint on the boots is a bit lower than the upper line of sculpt of the fur on top of boots.

The "Orange Belt" color of boots may vary from very light to very dark, even darker than Taiwan 1982, the same goes with belt color which can vary very much but it is always more reddish than "Yellow Belt" (the first edition).

I am not so familiar chronology of the He-Man cards (never been interested in MOCs)

Is this correct?

8-back without warranty
8-back with warranty
12 back
The Original

Based on this I've marked TAIWAN 1982 as "The Original" because I think that's the last edition produced in Taiwan. But probably on the same "the original" cards there were some of those "Orange Belt" as well...

There are also two variants of He-Man MEXICO ( they are recognized by soft heads and yellow belt).
MEXICO 1981 (with pinkish face, very much like TAIWAN) and MEXICO 1982 (with pale face and light yellow hair).
I think these were sold in USA on the same cards as Taiwan versions (just different country marks), so it is very difficult to correlate figure variants with cards in some cases

So is the Mexico version probably a 12 back version & not an original 8 back version? Right??

I am just guessing since I don't have any photo of MOC Mexican He-Man, but all this about which variants were packed on which card could be solved by some collectors of MOC figures who can just check the country and the year printed on the back of the card and recognize from these photos which is the figure/variant inside (much easier than from looking at photos of figure in the bubble)...